Is the Oculus Go still worth it in 2019?

The Oculus Go was heralded as the first headset to provides a VR experience without being tethered to a desktop. It features its own screen, operating system, storage and remote. Priced at around $200 (depending on storage size options), it’s also significantly cheaper than other VR headsets. The Oculus Go was praised for the quality of its screen, the wide range of apps, games and 360 video experience available and its affordable price. Still, the Go has its limitations and in 2019 people are looking for fully immersive VR. Is the Go still worth buying in 2019 or should you wait until a more advanced untetherd system is released?

The best thing about the Oculus Go is the fact you can just pick it up and, well, go! Unlike most other headsets, the Go doesn’t need a connection to a desktop to work. It’s still pretty much the only VR headset out now that allows you to do this. Other headsets such as the Playstation VR, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality all require a connection of some kind.

The negatives of this are clear; firstly you’ll only be able to use your headset within the confines of your desktop/Playstaion and you’ll need to invest in one of the latter as well as a headset.

There are positives to this setup, most importantly the ability to experience 6DOF VR. This type of VR is full immersive and allows you to track all of your movements. The Go can only track your head movements as well as the controller. Some people say this isn’t true VR and it limits how your can interact with the virtual world.

Ideally there would be a VR headset that provides full VR tracking without having to be tethered to a desktop. Does such as VR headset exist?

Go Update Coming

Oculus will be releasing a new VR headset in 2019 called the Oculus Quest which will allow you to experience 6DOF VR without any wired connection. It will achieve this through a series of camera in the headset which will track your movements. This is a big leap in VR tech and will make the full VR experience far more accessible.

The Quest will be nearly twice as expensive than the Go, but still cheaper than other VR headsets. It will have a weaker processor than high end VR headsets are used to running on, so the quality of the games won’t be as good. Still you’ll have the full VR experience at the cheapest price possible.

So should you wait?

It may sound like a no-brainer that you should wait for the Quest, but it’s not that simple. Do you really need the full untethered VR experience? If you don’t have an interest in actually moving around in a space to play full VR games, then the new tech in the Quest is wasted on you. If you are more interested in watching VR videos, YouTube, Netflix and playing some more basic VR games then the Oculus Go is still the best option in 2019. It’s cheap, easy to use and there is so much content available for it.

I love using my Go, particularly for watching 360 videos, and I wouldn’t trade it for a more advanced VR headset just yet.

Oculus Go

The first all in one VR headset with a stunningly high resolution screen for even more immersive VR experiences